Roles and Functions of the

Correctional System
Correctional Careers
• Probation Officers
• Parole Officers
• Jailers or Detention Officers
• Correctional Officers
• Juvenile Detention Officers
• Federal Correctional Officers

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Probation Officers
• Work under county, state, or federal agencies
• Make reports to court on offender behavior
• Conduct pre-trial investigations for the court
• Monitor compliance with court-ordered
conditions of release
• Complete offender risk assessments
• Report non-compliance to the court

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Parole Officers
• Supervise previously incarcerated offenders
in the community
• Monitor compliance with special conditions
of release
• Report non-compliance to the paroling
authority
• Conduct home, work, and officer visits with
offenders
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Parole Officers (continued)
District Parole Officers supervise offenders who have
been released on parole, or mandatory supervision, to
complete their sentences while living in Texas
communities.

Institutional Parole Officers are physically assigned to

TDCJ units. They interview incarcerated offenders at
TDCJ Units, federal correctional institutions,
contracted facilities, and county jails statewide to
prepare Parole Case Summaries.

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Jailers and Detention Officers
• Supervise inmates in correctional facilities
(generally county or local level)
• Work with adults or juveniles
• Fingerprint, photograph, and book offenders
upon intake
• Manage offenders in correctional facilities

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Average Correctional Salaries
• Probation: $31,292 – $47,489
• Parole: $32,459 – $44,709
• Correctional Officer: $28,241 – $45,579
• Jailer: $28,24 – $41,383
• Federal Probation Officer: $21,083 –
$112,800

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Correctional Officer Duties
• Supervise offenders
• Maintain the security of the facility
• Transport offenders
• Conduct searches of offenders and their
property
• Respond to emergencies
• Read, review, and properly apply information

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Prison Administration

• Correctional Officer
– Uniformed jail or
prison employees
whose primary job is
the security and
movement of inmates

• Warden:
– The chief administrator
of a prison

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Your local Bed and Breakfast:
We’ll even leave the light on!

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Early Jail Conditions
16 people in Prisoners Could buy: Indigents
a 12 x 12 cell provided alcohol, had to work
their own food, for their keep
food and privileges,
medical and cell
needs space
Men, women, Sick and No heat, no Many deaths
and children healthy plumbing, no from sickness
were all housed adequate and
housed together sleeping or starvation
together living space

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Reforms:
The Walnut Street Jail
• 1790 law passed by the
Pennsylvania legislature
– Humane physical facilities
– Adequate food and water at public expense
– Separation of men, women, and children
– Prohibited “buying” better treatment
– Debtors and the mentally ill separated from the
criminal population
– Orphans were moved to separate buildings

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Reforms:
Prison Life at Walnut Street
• Prisoners worked, but were paid for labor
• Earned early release for good behavior
• Attempted to rehabilitate prisoners
• Became overcrowded
• Conditions deteriorated and costs
skyrocketed
• Prison failed at rehabilitation
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Reforms:
Eastern State Penitentiary
• Built in 1892
• Cost $500,000 to house
250 prisoners
• Most expensive building
in the new world
• First in the country to
have flushing toilets and
hot-air heating
• Designed as a
penitentiary, not a jail or
prison
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Reforms:
Eastern State Penitentiary (continued)
• Penitentiary – a correctional institution
based on the concept that inmates can
change their criminality through reflection
and penitence

– Individual cells
– Must become proficient at a skill for use after
release
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Reforms:
Eastern State Penitentiary (continued)
• Expected to read the Bible when not working
or exercising
• Use of the “silent system”
• Maximum security, walled, and self-contained
• Cells 12 x 7.5 and had a window
• Working, exercising, eating, and sleeping all
performed in the prisoner’s cell
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 Reforms:
The Auburn System
• Built in 1816 – walled,
maximum security
• Cells 7’x 4’, 7’ high, back
to back, 5 tiers located in
the center of the building
inside “cell blocks”
• Cells poorly lit, no fresh
air
• Inmates moved to other
locations in the unit for
work, exercise, and eating
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 Reforms:
The Auburn System (continued)
• The silent system was used, but hard to enforce
• Corporal punishment used for violations
• Marched from place to place
• Short haircuts
• Distinctive uniforms
• First use of solitary confinement
• Prison industries (the prison was self-sufficient)
• The Prototype American Prison

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Reforms:
Southern Penal Systems
• Convict lease system was implemented
after the end of slavery
• Construction work, factory work,
agricultural work
• Very poor work and living conditions
• Worked 12-15 hours a day
• Often lived in cages, and discipline was
brutal
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 Reforms:
Southern Penal Systems (continued)
• The origin of “chain gangs”
• The 1930 Prison Farm System replaced the lease system
• Inmate labor used to sustain prisons and other profit industries
• Used prisoners as guards and supervisors to cut costs
• Arkansas and Texas brought about U.S. Supreme Court decisions
on the 8th amendment

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Prison Reforms
• 1930s laws prohibited the sale of inmate
goods
• Prisons began supplying products to the
government (license plates)
• Between 1950 and 1966, over 100 riots
• In September 1971, 43 inmates died in the
Attica State Prison riot
• In February 1980, 36 died in New Mexico
riots
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Prison Reforms (continued)

• 1980s – the US
Supreme Court
decided that inmates
could sue over
– Living conditions
– Medical treatment
– Inmates’ rights
– Prison policies
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Jails

• Jail – a short-term, multipurpose holding

facility that serves as a gateway for the
criminal justice system
• Jails hold
– Defendants awaiting trial
– Defendants convicted of misdemeanors
– The mentally ill pending movement to a health
facility
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Jails (continued)
• Jails hold
– Local, state, federal, and
military prisoners
– Adults of both genders
– Juveniles
– Convicted prisoners
– Absconders
– Witnesses
– Most awaiting trial or
transport

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Punishment Range for Jail
• Class C Misdemeanor
– a fine up to $500 (ticket)
– cannot be arrested
• speeding or open container
• Class B Misdemeanor
– up to 180 days in jail, and a $2,000 fine
• Class A Misdemeanor
– up to 2 years in jail, and a $4,000 fine
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County Jails

• Over 3,300 local and county jails

• Vary in size from less than 50 to
more than 7,000
• Population has more than doubled
since 1983
• Very few municipal jails
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 State Prisons

Prisons – correctional
institutions for prisoners
convicted of felonies
• Extended sentences
• Separated inmates by sex
• Architecture reflective of
gender bias

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Prisons
Top 10 Highest Incarceration Rates
1. California 163,001
2. Texas 157,997
3. Federal 145,416
4. Florida 71,319
5. New York 70,198
6. Michigan 47,718
7. Ohio 45,833
8. Illinois 45,281
9. Georgia 44,232
10. Pennsylvania 36,847
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Punishment Levels for Prison
State Jail Felony (SJF)
– 180 days to 2 years, and a $10,000 fine
3rd Degree
– 2-10 years, and a $10,000 fine
2nd Degree
– 2-20 years, and a $10,000 fine
1st Degree
– 2-99 (life), and a $10,000 fine
Capital
– Death
– Life without Parole

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State Prison Security Levels
• Minimum Security
– Have few physical barriers to escape, and many
programs for inmates

• Medium Security
– Fortress-like, walled, self-contained institutions
that offer inmates education, vocation, and
rehabilitation

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State Prison
Security Levels (continued)
• Maximum Security
– prisons for inmates at high risk of escape, or
who are dangerously violent to other inmates or
staff
• Administrative Segregation
– solitary confinement
– inmates are kept in single cells 23 hrs a day.
They are allowed a shower and one hour of
recreation per day.
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Private Jails and Prisons

• For-profit facilities run by private security

companies
• Contracted by counties at lower cost
• Less programs
• Less training, lower pay, and conditions
often below state standards
• Escapes and assaults carry smaller penalties
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Constitutional Rights
• Retain all the rights of “free” citizens
• Three government interests, however,
justify curtailing offender’s rights:
– Maintaining internal order and discipline
– Securing the institution against unauthorized
access or escape
– Rehabilitating offenders

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Habeas Corpus
• The primary purpose is to seek release from
prison or jail for unlawful confinement
• Exhaust state judicial remedies before going
to federal court
• Filed in state or federal court
• Filed by one offender
• Affects only that offender
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Section 1983
• The purpose is to address prison conditions
or obtain monetary damages from prison
officials
• Filed directly in federal court
• Affects all offenders
• May be filed as class action suit

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First Amendment
• Freedom of
– Religion
– Speech
– Press
– Assembly
– Petitioning the government for redress of
grievances

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Fourth Amendment
• Prohibition against
unreasonable searches
and seizures

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Fifth Amendment
• The right to jury for capital crimes
• Protects against double jeopardy
• The right against self-incrimination
• Prohibits taking life, liberty, or property
without due process
• Protects against taking private property
without just compensation
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Sixth Amendment
• The right to a public and speedy trial
• Impartial jury
• Informed of the nature and cause of
accusations
• Confront witnesses
• Compulsory process for obtaining
witnesses
• Right to an attorney

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Eighth Amendment
• Prohibits excessive bail
• Protects against cruel
and unusual punishment

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Fourteenth Amendment
• The right to the privileges and immunities
of citizens
• The right to due process
• The right to equal protection under the law

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Case Law
• Impingment on an offender’s constitutional
rights is valid if it is reasonably related to
legitimate penological interests

• Turner v. Safely, 482 U.S. 78 (1987)

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Resources
• 020547893X, Fagin, James. Criminal Justice: Prentice Hall, 2007.
• 1593455747, del Carmen, Rolando v. Susan E. Ritter, Betsy A. Witt.
Briefs of Leading Cases in Corrections: Anderson, 2008.
• 0314264159, O’Brien, Edward; Fisher, Margaret; Austern, David T.
Practical Law for Jail and Prison Personnel: West Group, 1987.
• http://nicic.gov/pubs/2001/017068.pdf
• http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=482&i
nvol=78

• http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos156.htm
• http://supreme.justia.com/us/482/78/

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